Basket-cover



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE O. GARBRANCE, OF WATERVLIET, NEW YORK.

BASKET-COVER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 464,686, dated December8, 1891.

Application filed August 22, 1891. Serial No. 403,393- (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE G. GARBRANCE, a citizen of the United States,residing in the town of WVatervliet, in the county of Albany and Stateof New York, have invented certain .new and usefullmprovements inBasket-Gov- .ers; and I do hereby declare the following to he a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in The objects of my invention are to produce abasket-cover frame of hexagon or octagon form and composed of six oreight pieces,

which will be securely held together by the respective groups ofalternating tongues and mortises made with the ends of said pieceswithout the use of nails or glue; also, to produce a cover by combininga frame com posed of six or eight pieces united by groups of alternatingtongues and mortises made with each end of each of said pieces andhorizontal slats secured by nails to said framepieces; further, toprovide with a basket-cover a hook having an elastic-bracket connectionwith the cover for engagement at will with the rim of the basket, and,finally, to provide with a basket-cover means by which several coversmay be closely packed together and held securely together for storageand shipment until purposely separated. I attain these objects by themeans illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of thisspecification, in which- Fighre 1 is a plan View of the frame of thecover, with the slats indicated by dotted lines. Fig. 2 is a sectionalview of a cover and the means for securing it to abasket. Fig. 3 is aperspective view of'three of the pieces of a cover-frame when joinedtogether, and illustrating the means for holding the same securelyjoined, and also the means for securing the cover with the basket andfor securing one cover with another. Fig. 4 1s a view of the hook and abracket which serves as an elastic connection between said hook and thecover. Fig. 5 is a sectional viewof a section of a cover and rim of abasket and a hook elastically connecting the cover with the said rim;and Fig. 6 is a side View of a pack of covers, and illustrating themanner in which each cover in a pack is held secured to its neighboringcovers.

The same letters of reference refer to like parts throughout the severalviews.

In the drawings, A is the cover,'ma'de with an octagon form and havingits frame A composed of eight pieces a a a a a a a a, securely joinedtogether, as hereinafter described, and having the fruit-protectingslats b b secured to said frame, preferably by nails.

The frame-pieces a a are each made of about the same length as theothers and with such an extension as will give to the frame, when saidpieces are joined together, the size it is required to have for use withthe basket it is to be used with. These pieces a a are each made theduplicate of the other, so as to be readily interchangeable with all theothers in the frame, and for use for fruit-baskets-such as baskets forpeaches, plums, &c..-I prefer to make them with a vertical depth ofabout one and one-quarter inches or more or less and with a thickness orhorizontal extension of about one-half of one inch or more or less.These pieces a have their ends cut and formed at about the angle offorty-five degrees, (45,) and their outer sides are the shorter sides ineach piece. lVith each end of each piece a is made a series of two ormore tongues c c and a correspondingnumber of grooves or mortises e e.These tongues and their associated grooves and mortises are made on anangle corresponding with the angle of forty-five degrees (45) with whichthe ends of the said pieces are cut and extend inwardlyfrom each endsurface to a distance corresponding with the thickness of pieces and tothe shoulders c c of each tongue, as shown, with the line of each ofsaid shoulders corresponding with those of the other shoulders and at anangle of forty-five degrees, (45,) the same as the lines of the outerend surfaces of the said tongues, so that in a plan view these tongueswill be diamond-shaped in form from their shoulders c c to their outerends. These tongues c c and recesses or mortises c e, which are shown toalternate, correspond in size as to thickness and form with each other,while each group of tongues provided with one end of each of thesepieces a-say those at the right-hand end of each piece-are so arrangedthat the line of the lower side surface of the lower tongue of theright-hand group will coincide with the line of the lower edge surfaceof the several pieces as well as the piece it is itself integral with,while those of the lefthand end of each piece are so arranged that theline of the upper side surface of the upper tongue of the left-handgroup of tongues will coincide with the line of the upper side surfaceof the said piece and also that of the like surfaces of the otherpieces, so that by these arrangements of the said tongues in each end ofeach of the said pieces a the uppermost shoulder c of the right-handgroup of tongues c will be relatively above the upper tongue of thegroup and the second shoulder a be relatively above the second tongue,while the lower shoulder a of the group will be relatively above thelowermost tongue of the same group, while with the left-hand group ofalternating tongues and recesses the shoulder of the uppermost tongue 0will be relatively below that tongue and that of the second tongue bealso relatively below it and the lowermost tongue of that group have itsshoulders relatively below, all as illustrated in Fig. 3.

\Vith the several pieces a a, composing the frame A of the cover, havingwith their right and left hand ends the groups of alternating tongues cc and recesses or mortises e 6, arranged as above described and shown,the left-hand end groups of alternating tongues and recesses or mortisesof each of the said pieces of this frame maybe made to securely engagewith those of the right-hand end groups of similar pieces by simplythrusting the tongues of the respective ends to be joined into theircorresponding recesses or mortises of said respective ends and settingthe inner edges of the tongues of each end close and tight up to theshoulders of the coacting tongues, which shoulders are in fact the backsof the recesses or mortises. hen the several pieces a a composing theframe A, are joined together, as shown by full lines in Fig. 1,the inneredges of the interlocking tongues of each group will be at an angle withthose of the other, while the interlocking tongues of each group will bebraced by the shoulders of the coacting tongues of the other group, sothat the joint between the joined ends cannot be readily broken by forceexerted in di- "rection from the inside of the frame outwardly and atright angles to the line of each of said pieces.

After the several pieces a a a are joined together by the interlockinggroups of tongues c c, as above described, the top slats b b are securedin place on the upper side of said frame A, preferably by nails or n.These slats b b opcrate to stiffen the frame and also guard the fruit orvegetables below from being removed, and also serve as a means forsupporting weight on the cover without injury to the con tents of thebasket B.

This cover is provided with fastening devices applied or secured toopposite side pieces a a of the frame in such a manner that they may bereadily made to engage with the rim portions B of the basket B, so as tobe securely held with the same without liability of being accidentallydisengaged therefrom, although these fastening-pieces may be in form ofconstruction and operation similar to the fastening devices shown in myLetters Patent, No. 403,528, before mentioned, or other suitable formsof fastening devices may be employed; yet the fastening devices 0 and CD, the former a rigid one and the latter an elastic one, are found to bemost advantageous and reliable for general use. The rigid fasteningdevice C consists of the hook O, join ted with the staple e, secu red tothe cover, and preferably by its limbs being clamped between the middleslat b and a frame-piece a, with the end portion e of one of said limbsbent atan angle and bearing against the inner side of the saidframe-piece a, as shown in Fig. 1. The elastic fastening device C D iscomposed of the hook O and elastic bracket or staple 1), Fig. 4:. Thishook C may be in form similar to hook O of the rigid fastener, and ispreferably made of wire with the hook end made to terminate, as at 0back of the how 0 of the hook and toward a line with the plane of theeye of said hook, so that when the said hook is in place, holding withthe rim of the cover of the hasket, it will not be readily unhooked fromthe same Without an effort on the part of an operator. The elasticbracket or staple D of this hook C is made of any suitable elastic orspring wire and has integral with its limbs (Z d the elastic coils orbends cl cl and the attaching-limbs d d", by which this elastic stapleor bracket is secured with the cover, preferably by being clampedbetween the middle slat b and the top-edge surface of piece a, as shownin the drawings. Then the said elastic bracket D is secured in place,its elastic bends or coils d (1 will be at the corner inside, where theslat joins the piece a of the frame A, and the limbs (Z d, with theircommon bow holding the hook, will be projected through the notch oropening a, made in the piece a, from within to the outside of the cover,as shown, with the said hook holding limbs (Z (i, when in normalsituation, up against the lower side of slat b and in the upper portionof the opening a, as shown in Figs. 2 and 5, so that said limbs d d mayat will have their bow ends jointed with the hook depressed, the elasticcoil or bends cl cl yielding from full lines to dotted lines in Fig. 5when the hook O is to be inserted in place to engage with the rim B ofthe basket or be disengaged therefrom.

When the cover is to be placed and secured on the basket B, the rigidhook C will be en gaged with the rim B of the basket when the cover isturned edge down. at said hook to said rim. After such engagement ofsaid hook O with the rim of the basket the body of the cover will beturned fiat down on the rim all around of the basket, when the operatorwill force the hook C, secured to the elastic bracket or staple,downwardly, as illustrated by dotted lines in Fig. 5, until the nose 0of the hook is sufficiently down below the lower edge of the rim of thebasket as to allow it to be passed inside of the basket and back of theline of inside surface of said rim, when the operator will release hishold of the said hook and allow the elastic coils or bends (1' cl tooperate to lift the hook through'the staple-limbs d cl, working in theopening a of the cover, when the hook C will be raised from dotted linesto full lines and be brought in secure engagement with the rim B of thebasket, as shown in Fig. 5.

Made in the cover-frame A and into pieces a a opposite each other insaid frame are notches f f, cut into said pieces from their lower edges,as shownin Fig. 2. These notches f f are indicated by dotted lines inFig. 1, and one of them is shown in full lines in sectional View in Fig.2, and also in'perspective in a piece a of the section of cover-frameshown in perspective in Fig. 3, and also in full lines in Fig. 6. Bymeans of these notches ffin the cover-frame severalsay twenty or more orlessof these improved covers can be packed and tightly held together forstorage or for transportation without employing any device foreign tothe cover for binding or holding such a number together in package.

When several of these covers are to be packed and secured together, asshown in Fig. 6, the upper cover of a neighboring pair of covers will beso placed that the hooks O C will be brought to face the said notches ff and engage with the same, which may be readily done by the sameoperations had with each cover and its hooks with the rim of the basket,as above described, as the hooks of the upper cover of a neighboringpair of covers will be made to engage with the notched member or piece aat notch f, the same as they would or will with the rim of the basket.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, 1s-

1. In a detachable cover for baskets, the combination, with frame A,composed of six or more pieces a a, having formed with their respectiveends the groups of the alternating recesses or mortises e e and tenons c0, having shoulders c c occurring in each group, as described, for thepurposes set forth, of slats Z) Z), secured to said frame, substantiallyas described.

2. In a detachable cover for baskets, and in,

combination with the same, the rigid hook C, secured to one side edge ofsaid cover, and the hook O, secured by an elastic bracket or staple withthe opposite side edge of the same, substantially as and for thepurposes set forth.

3. In a detachable cover for baskets, the combination, with thecover-frame having notches f f made in the lower side margins, of twooppositely-located pieces or members of the same, a rigid hook O,secured to another member of the frame, which quarters with said notchedmembers,andan elasticallysupported hook 0', located opposite said rigidhook, whereby the said hooks may be made to engage with the notchedmembers of a similar neighboring cover-frame and said notched members beengaged with the hooks provided with a similarsecond neighboring cover,substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

4. In combination with a detachable basketcover, the rigidly-attachedhook C and the hook O and elastic bracket or staple D, substantially asand for-the purposes set forth.

In testimony that I claim the invention above set forth I affix mysignature in pres.

